Duke Language Usage Manual

INTRODUCTION

Duke University follows The Associated Press Stylebook for stylistic issues pertaining to news releases and other information generated for news media and for news material distributed on the Web. When an issue is not covered in the stylebook, we rely on Webster’s New World Dictionary.

The discussion of grammar and usage is far from comprehensive, but some common errors have been highlighted. When in doubt, or when the example you’re seeking isn’t covered, we strongly recommend that you consult the guides mentioned above, as well as others, such as Strunk & White’s “The Elements of Style.”

There are also a number of helpful online dictionaries and usage guides, among them:

Professor is never abbreviated and only capitalized if part of a title, e.g. Joe Smith, the Eugene Jones Professor of Chemistry, …

United States and United Nations — spell out on first reference, then abbreviate U.S. and U.N. as nouns on second and subsequent references. Abbreviate always when used as adjectives. OK to leave out periods in headlines: A UN commission ….

The United States contribution to the U.N Climate Fund is larger than that of any other nation.

The U.S. ambassador said she will not protest the meeting at the United Nations. But a U.N. spokeswoman said …

academic degrees

bachelor of arts (B.A.)(a bachelor’s)

bachelor of divinity (B.D.)

bachelor of laws (LL.B)

bachelor of science (B.S.)

doctor of law (J.D.) (a doctorate)

doctor of laws (L.L.D.)

doctor of medicine (M.D.)

doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.)

master of arts (M.A.) (a master’s)

master of public policy (M.P.P.)

master of science (M.S.)

academic departments

Academic departments are in lowercase (the music department, the physics department) except when the subject in question is a proper noun (the English department, the German department).

Department names used in an official sense are uppercase (e.g., Duke’s Department of Chemistry, the Department of Music). The same is true for institutes, centers, schools, etc.

Faculty is not capitalized unless it’s part of a proper name: Duke Faculty Commons; The faculty agenda includes ….

carat, caret, karat

A carat is a measure of weight of precious stones. A caret is a proofreader’s symbol, indicating where words or letters are to be inserted. A karat is a measure of the portion of pure gold in an alloy.

Due is an adjective that follows the verb to be or modifies a particular noun.

The cancellation was due to snow.

Cancellations due to snow disrupted the semester.

It should not be used in adverbial phrases to mean because of.

Instead of: Due to snow, classes were canceled.

Use: Because of snow, classes were canceled.

Duke’s units, official names

Arts & Sciences and Trinity College

Divinity School

Duke University Health System (lowercase “health system” if on its own)
*(Duke Medicine is an umbrella term that refers to all of the component entities — Duke University Health System, Duke University School of Medicine, Duke University School of Nursing, etc. Duke University Health System refers ONLY to the clinical entities — Duke University Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, outpatient clinics and facilities, etc.)

The Fuqua School of Business

Graduate School

Nicholas School of the Environment

Pratt School of Engineering

Sanford School of Public Policy

School of Law

School of Medicine

School of Nursing

Undergraduate women who attended Duke between 1930 and 1972 were students in the Woman’s College, not the Women’s College.

See also: Schools and class years, below.

foreign words
and phrases

Foreign words and phrases found in a standard English dictionary are not italicized:

al-Qaida

dolce vita

fait accompli

hacienda

jihad

kibitz

mah-jongg

mea culpa

troika

tsunami

Nouns that in German would be capitalized are in English lowercase: doppelgänger or doppelganger, schadenfreude, weltschmerz.

full time, part time

Hyphenate the adjective, not the noun.

Full-time employees work full time. Part-time employees work part time.

fundraising, fundraiser

One word in all cases.

The Campaign for Duke was a fundraising effort. Fundraising is important to the university’s future.

handicap, disability

Please refer to people with disabilities or disabled rather than to the handicapped.

he or she, his or her

Using he or she and his or her to be fair to both genders can be awkward. It is often simpler to make the noun plural.

Instead of:
A student gets good grades when he or she studies hard.

Use:
Students get good grades when they study hard.

historic, history

When the h in these words is pronounced, the indefinite article should be a:

Use an em dash to denote an abrupt change in thought in a sentence or an emphatic pause.

Use two hyphens and include a space before and after each:

This is excellent — as usual — so we will take it.

impact

Impact is a noun.

The team’s losing record had an impact on attendance.

Its use as a verb meaning affect or influence is common, but should be avoided.

Instead of:
The team’s losing record impacted attendance.

Use:
The team’s losing record affected attendance.

imply, infer

Speakers and writers imply, listeners and readers infer.

institutes

The seven Duke University institutes and their affiliated centers contribute problem-focused, interdisciplinary research and education, and generate knowledge in the service of society through initiation and facilitation of collaborations and programming. More information is at http://interdisciplinary.duke.edu/institutes/index.php

Iran is not an Arab nation. Its people are Persian, Azerbaijani, Kurdish and other ethnic groups. The principal language is Farsi, an Indo-European language, also known as Persian, that is written with Arabic characters. Ninety percent of Iranians are Shiite Muslims, 10 percent Sunni Muslims.

Iraq is an Arab nation. The principal language is Iraqi, a dialect of Arabic. Sixty-five percent of Iraqis are Shiite Muslims, 30 percent Sunni Muslims.

The Kurds, Sunni Muslims who speak a dialect of Farsi, are a large minority in both countries.

italics, quotation marks

AP does not italicize words in stories. Composition titles of created works, i.e., books, movies, operas, plays, songs, television programs, and works of art are put in quotation marks.

In general, do not use italics or quotation marks for emphasis or to suggest irony or special usage:

Some students questioned whether the painting should be considered “art.”

In particular, do not use italics or quotation marks around clichés or figures of speech:

The tuition increase will have an impact on the university’s “bottom line.”

Nicknames are enclosed in quotation marks.

Harold “Spike” Yoh, former chairman of Duke’s Board of Trustees.

Kmart, Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Packard Bell, etc.

When in doubt about the spelling and punctuation of company names, check with the press relations department at corporate headquarters. Even official websites may contain errors.

For external use, say, “Jones, a 1965 graduate of the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke, …

For internal use, our style for the school and class year of alumni is: School initial ’YY (use an apostrophe, not a single open quotation mark)

(In 2024 and thereafter, we will have to distinguish between, for example, T’2024 and T’1924.)

Trinity College T’YY
Divinity School D’YY
The Fuqua School of Business B’YY (Do not use F, which is reserved for graduates of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, formerly the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies)
Graduate School G’YY
Nicholas School of the Environment F’YY
Pratt School of Engineering E’YY
Sanford School of Public Policy S’YY
School of Law L’YY
School of Medicine M’YY
School of Nursing N’YY
Woman’s College WC’YY

Also:
Engineering/Professional Programs X’YY
Graduate School of Nursing R’YY
House Staff (hospital interns treated as alumni by Medical Development) H’YY
Parents are designated P’YY, with an explanation of which school their child or children attended. Grandparents are GP’YY.

Scot, Scots, Scottish, Scotch

A Scot is a native of Scotland.

Scots are the people of Scotland.

Scottish modifies someone or something from Scotland.

Scotch is a type of whiskey. When the two words are used together they are spelled Scotch whisky.

states, names of

AP now says to spell out states in all references.

He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Not Raleigh, N.C.)

that, which

That introduces clauses essential to the meaning of a sentence (and never set off by commas).

Names of newspapers, journals or magazines do not take quotation marks and are not italicized. (Note:“the” may or may not be part of a paper’s name. Check each publication to be sure. Websites are a good source.)

The Herald-Sun

The News & Observer

The New York Times

New York Daily News

The New Yorker

Science

Nature

U.S. News (with a space) was formerly U.S.News & World Report (no space). Its website is www.usnews.com.

trademarks

The following words are trademarks:

Ace Bandage

AstroTurf

Band-Aid

Scotch Tape

Seeing-Eye dog

Sheetrock

Spandex

Styrofoam

Velcro

Xerox (never used as a verb)

The following are generic:

aspirin

cellophane

escalator

nylon

pingpong (unless referring to the table tennis equipment made by Ping-Pong)